City staff: Reject bid for basketball court rehabilitation

Council considering new box office ticketing service

The Yuma City Council will be asked tonight to reject a bid received for rehabilitation of the basketball court at the Joe Henry Optimist Center, located at 1793 S. 1st Ave.

The request is part of the consent agenda for tonight’s regular meeting that starts at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers, 1 City Plaza.

The City Code permits the council to reject all bids received in response to a solicitation “if it is determined by the Council that such action is taken in the best interests of the City.”

The city received only one bid, and it exceeded the $175,000 allocated for this project. Funding is to come from a portion of the city’s annual Community Development Block Grant. Because the grant amount was fixed during the current fiscal year, the city cannot request additional funding until the next budget cycle.

The city intends to request more CDBG funds during the next funding cycle. This will permit the project to be rebid and constructed during the 2020-21 fiscal year.

During a work session review of the agenda, Deputy Mayor Gary Knight asked for clarification. Acknowledging that the CDBG funds for this project weren’t quite enough, he asked if the CDBG funds the city already has will be carried over to the next fiscal year “so we don’t lose them?”

“That is correct,” City Engineer Jeff Kramer said, noting that the city can retain and manage the funds for next year. Rhonda Lee-James, the city’s neighborhood services manager, added that the city has the ability to secure the funds on the basis that the project did go out to bid.

Knight also questioned the fees for a box office ticket service. The council is also considering awarding a contract for ticketing software to Vendini Inc. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

In 2007, the council approved a contract with TICKETsage for box office ticketing software. Since then, the city has used the software to sell tickets for multiple venues and events hosted at Desert Sun Stadium, Yuma Art Center, Historic Yuma Theatre, Yuma

Civic Center and other locations.

In the current year, the city has sold 20,943 tickets for the combined venues, for a total amount of $378,640.

The city recently installed new computers and software upgrades, and it has become necessary to upgrade the hardware used to process transactions in TICKETsage. The city sent out requests for proposals, and seven firms responded. The evaluation committee reviewed and rated the proposals received. Staff is now asking the council to execute a contract with the recommended company.

Knight asked whether the ticket fee would be charged to the customer on top of the ticket price or as part of it. Parks and Recreation Department Director Debbie Wendt explained that the customer will pay the fee on top of the ticket price and it will go directly to the ticket company.

In addition, the city will pay a one-time fee of $11,000 to pay for hardware, including printers, barcode scanners, credit card readers and charger stations. The city would have had to purchase these items anyway Wendt said.

No annual maintenance fees will be charged to the city. The cost for software support will be assessed to each customer transaction based on the amount of each sale, noted a staff report.

Wendt explained that staff recommends Vendini because of its customer service. The city has had “numerous issues” with the current system, which has gone down during several events and prevented the city from selling tickets until the system went back up.

And during these times, there is no customer service support from TICKETsage. “There’s no one to help us,” she said, adding that this happened during YumaCon and staff could not sell tickets for about two hours.

Councilman Mike Shelton asked about the customer experience. Wendt noted that while the current ticketing service is “difficult” and “clunky,” Vendini is user friendly and “effortless.”

“People should not stumble over the little stuff. l think this is the little stuff,” Shelton said.

Wendt pointed out that Lindsay Benacka, arts and culture program manager at the Yuma Art Center, has used the Vendini service. “We know it’s tried and true,” Wendt said.

The ticketing services will overlap while the new system goes on board and staff is trained, Wendt added.

Knight also questioned a proposed upgrade to the Yuma Police Department and Municipal Court heat ing, ventilation, and air conditioning control system from Trane U.S. Inc. of Tempe at a cost of $357,000.

The deputy mayor asked whether local technicians would be available if the system goes down or if the city would have to wait for technicians to come from Tempe. Justin Lewis, facilities manager, noted that local, trained technicians will respond, with extra resources available from Phoenix and across the nation if needed.

“That’s encouraging,” Knight said, noting that if the AC goes down during the summer, the city would need help as quickly as possible.